Ridding houses of dampness? - 06/09/05 06:27 AM
Sorry this doesn't actually pertain to any particular Code as least as far as I'm aware.
But with walking into a few houses over here in New Zealand, the problem of dampness in houses, comes up every Winter over here.
New Zealand with having a majority of the housing near the coast and with older, wooden construction, tend to leak heat like a sieve in the Winter and as much as you do as far as draught-protection the houses here still seem to be cold, no matter what sort of heating equipment you use in them.
Figure into the equation, the odd polar blast from Antartica, and it's no wonder these houses are making thier occupants sick.
One House Inspector I was talking to locally measured the inside air temperature at 3C (37.4F) in a house he was investigating, yet it was 10C (50F) outside.
Him and I agreed that rising damp in houses of poor construction or houses that have rotted due to the damp, can be a health hazard.
Oddly enough, most of these situations only happen in Rental houses here, newly built houses all comply with the Building Regulations here as far as Damp is concerned.
Upshot question here, is what can you do about a house that is damp?
Also if you came across a house that was damp inside, would you report it to the appropriate authorities?.
Considering that the tenants often have no way of getting thier Land-lord to repair the place, without being evicted for having reported the situation in the first place.
A vicious circle in my opinion.
Especially if your house is making you sick.
GRRR
But with walking into a few houses over here in New Zealand, the problem of dampness in houses, comes up every Winter over here.
New Zealand with having a majority of the housing near the coast and with older, wooden construction, tend to leak heat like a sieve in the Winter and as much as you do as far as draught-protection the houses here still seem to be cold, no matter what sort of heating equipment you use in them.
Figure into the equation, the odd polar blast from Antartica, and it's no wonder these houses are making thier occupants sick.
One House Inspector I was talking to locally measured the inside air temperature at 3C (37.4F) in a house he was investigating, yet it was 10C (50F) outside.
Him and I agreed that rising damp in houses of poor construction or houses that have rotted due to the damp, can be a health hazard.
Oddly enough, most of these situations only happen in Rental houses here, newly built houses all comply with the Building Regulations here as far as Damp is concerned.
Upshot question here, is what can you do about a house that is damp?
Also if you came across a house that was damp inside, would you report it to the appropriate authorities?.
Considering that the tenants often have no way of getting thier Land-lord to repair the place, without being evicted for having reported the situation in the first place.
A vicious circle in my opinion.
Especially if your house is making you sick.
GRRR